Egg prices aren’t over-easy with bird flu
Staff writer
Egg prices are as high as $11.65 a dozen in county stores, and shelves are often bare or nearly bare.
Store owners say high prices are caused by bird flu. Government monitoring agencies now insist that if one bird in a flock tests positive, the entire flock must be destroyed. Producers must start over again, so supplies are low, and prices are high.
Chris Barnes, store manager of Heartland Foods in Herington, said hens take six months to begin layout. Meat chickens, on the other hand, take only three months to grow.
Heartland has eggs on hand at prices that Barnes says are “a little inflated.”
A dozen large Best Choice eggs sells for $8. Cackleberry Farms brand, produced in Lincolnville by Julie Klenda, sell for $1 to $1.50 less, Barnes said.
Although he expects bird flu eventually will ratchet up the price of chicken, Barnes thinks meat prices won’t take as dramatic of a leap.
Heartland has had a little difficulty getting eggs from its warehouse, but Klenda helps out by making weekly deliveries.
“We typically get 80 to 120 dozen a week,” Barnes said.
He’s not seeing people hoarding eggs, as happened with toilet paper in 2020.
“Most people just buy like they usually do,” Barnes said.
He recommended that customers ride out the price fluctuations.
“Three years ago, we were hitting to $5 or $6 a dozen,” Barnes said. “Be patient. It will right itself.”
Mitch Carlson, co-owner of Carlsons’ Grocery in Marion, said the regular price of a dozen large Best Choice eggs at his store was $11.54. The store’s shipments from its warehouse have been reduced.
The result is a low supply of eggs, with shelves sometimes pretty bare.
Carlsons’ sells Best Choice, Eggland’s Best, and Cackleberry Farms eggs.
“Julie Klenda has been keeping us supplied and doing her best to keep the price down,” Carlson said. “If we need some, she’ll bring some out, and she’ll bring her normal load.”
Carlson’s store typically orders more eggs from the warehouse than it gets.
“We’ll order as many as we want, and they will only send us our allocation,” Carlson said. “They try to keep it fair for everybody to let them get them.”
On Thursday, he said the store had only Best Choice eggs that had come in from a warehouse that morning.
Klenda typically delivers on Saturday, he said.
Customers don’t seem to have changed their buying habits.
“For most people, eggs are a staple, and they are biting the bullet,” Carlson said. “I don’t see them trying to stockpile yet because the price is so high.”
He predicts high egg prices will have a ripple effect on other products.
“Eventually, they are going to complain about the price of things that contain eggs, like mayonnaise,” Carlson said. “All we can do is wait and see. Our Eggland’s Best shows it will be back in our warehouses by Feb. 15.”
Carlson said chicken meat had not seen much of a price uptick.
“It’s going to happen, but that would be a different type of bird,” he said.
Dale Franz, owner of Dale’s Supermarket in Hillsboro, said his customers had “cut way back” on the number of eggs they buy, so the store isn’t running out of eggs.
Dale’s stocks Best Choice, Cackleberry Farms, Eggland’s Best, and Land O’Lakes brands.
He noted that Eggland’s Best and Land O’Lakes were hit hard by bird flu.
“Everybody got hit with the bird flu,” he said.
The store got a delivery of Cackleberry Farms eggs Friday.
“When they’re gone, they’re gone,” Franz said.